Map Shows Happiest Age Group in America

The United States may have been at the top of the Olympic leaderboard, but it is far from the top of the world happiness rankings although, as a Newsweek world map shows, some American age groups are happier than others.
According to the 2024 World Happiness Report, the U.S. is no longer among the top twenty happiest countries in the world overall. It now sits at 23, two places above Mexico.
But Americans only fall so far behind their peers when it comes to those aged 59 and under. Happiness soars in the U.S. for those above 60, it seems. Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation ranked 10th in the global ranking of happiest people over 60.
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The happiest in that age bracket is Denmark, followed by Finland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and then the U.S.
Although the U.K. on average reports slightly higher levels of happiness than the U.S, Brits over 60 are 20th on the global happiness ranking, ten places below the U.S.
The happiest country in the world for all age groups is Finland for the seventh year in a row. The least happy is Afghanistan.
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Despite Americans over 60 self-reporting as thriving in terms of life satisfaction, the report points less to a rise in happiness among the over 60s in America, and more to a fall in happiness for the younger generations.
Professor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Director of the Well-being Research Centre at the University of Oxford and an Editor of the World Happiness Report, told Newsweek: “Typically you have a U-shaped relationship between age and well-being.
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“People start off high in self-rated quality of life and then it comes down and it reaches a nadir around the midlife, associated with the midlife crisis in the mid 40s, and from there on, on average, well-being tends to go back up again.
“What you find in the U.S. is the first leg of the U, youth, is starting much lower, essentially youth are experiencing their midlife crisis today. That’s really worrying because it begs the question ‘where will youth be when they actually reach midlife?'”
Professor De Neve added that while the report itself does not hypothesize on why youth life satisfaction is declining so rapidly in the U.S, there are many theories as to why this is occurring.
He said youth life satisfaction is usually linked to life expectations. Countries such as Lithuania and Serbia which have some of the highest youth happiness in the world, also have a youth population experiencing more optimism for the future than their parents.
American youth, on the other hand, are experiencing an increase in the cost of education, fears around the labor market, and a rise in isolation and loneliness.
The happiest country over all, with the happiest people above 30, and the seventh happiest people below 30 is Finland.
According to the Finnish Happiness Institute, Finns cite proximity to nature as a key component of their happiness. The independent think tank has written about how Finns spend significant time in forested areas partaking in nature centric activities such as foraging for mushrooms and berries. According to Business Finland, most Finns are only 10 minutes away from nature, so spending time outside is easy and accessible.
Access to “high quality” nature, as in forests, oceans, or other places with rich biodiversity, have been proven to increase positive emotions such as calmness, joy, and creativity.
Professor Miles Richardson, founder of the Nature Connectedness Research Group, told Newsweek: “There is the simple ‘back to nature’ theory, that nature fits our senses. Our senses evolved to make sense of the natural world … so modern stimuli are more demanding on our cognitive resources.
“We don’t question why a fish needs a river or a bird needs the sky, but people seem surprised when nature is good for us.”
Professor Richardson said that the key to finding nature even in an urban environment is to “keep it simple.”
He told Newsweek: “It’s about moments not minutes. It’s about noticing nature, tuning into nature. It can be the weed growing in between the crack in the pavement, it can be the cobweb on a handle, just tuning in and noticing the natural world, be it birdsong or the breeze.”